neadods: (fandom_sane)
The penny took a long time to drop, but I finally figured out that two folks on my f-list seem to be quietly and dignifiedly bitching at *each other.* Call me Switzerland, folks; what you want to see in your show/fandom and what you say in your personal LJs is your own business. If I see a chance for dialog I'll take it and have, and have appreciated the responses. I have a preference, but I don't have dog in this fight, and I have respect for both of you.

However, to the kid who seems to be determined to bring on the wank? Child, I've walked hip-deep through more shit than you know how to stir. Vague announcements that folks who disagree with you should STFU to "avoid offense" are like the smell of gunpowder to this warhorse.

Just one quick question, although you'll probably never read this open post... do you really want to be pulling "fandom is" 'tudes with someone who's had more fandoms than you've had hot dinners? Whose experience of fandom runs well beyond sitting behind a computer? Take your righteous indignation and share it with the lurkers who support you in email; I've been in the trenches and you don't have a clue.
neadods: (welcome2hell)
I hadn't realized until this morning just how much of my immediate fandom experience is being affected by something that happened decades ago. I've mentioned it in passing, but the words are probably meaningless to anyone who doesn't know the background. And so, I thought an explanation here in my LJ ought to be in order. There is no point or moral to this post; it is here to explain only my headspace and how it got there. (Plus, quote chunks of a Blue Oyster Cult song.)

You see me now a veteran of a thousand psychic wars
We see everything through the lenses of our experiences. My experiences include the Beauty and the Beast war. It's hard to explain now, to fans whose experience is primarily online and whose idea of a fight is a flamewar and maybe a few bannings and new communities, just how vicious a scorched-earth war of attrition that mess was. At the time, and for several years afterwards, panfandom spoke of it in whispers - one of the two great atrocities of fandom-gone-feral, the Beauty and the Beast war. (The other one, fought a few years earlier, was the Blake's 7 war.)

I'm not sure that there's anything left of me
A quick primer. Beauty and the Beast was presented as a modern fairy tale; he's a hairy guy who lives in a magical world under NYC; she's a chic society lawyer. They fight crime. Then there was a major casting change (she left for reasons that depend on which side you talk to) and the motto changed from "Once Upon a Time is Now" to "It's Not a Fairy Tale Anymore." Factions instantly sprang up - Get Her Back or Replace Her vs Trust the Guys Who Brought You the Show in the First Place. (All this before shooting even started on the final season.) When the shows did air - ARMAGEDDON!

They say that academic infighting is fierce because the stakes are so small. Imagine the cosmically miniscule nature of a TV show, and then do the math.

I cannot claim to have been a helpless victim; I was a front-line fighter. It seemed important at the time. I look back at some things and think even now, "Yes, that was an abominable thing for someone to do, and someone had to speak up and say so." Without refighting or even announcing what side I was on, I will simply list some of the battles in that war:
- The dissolution of charities in the name of the show, with no regard to the recipients of the charities.
- A full-page ad taken out in Variety venting fury on the producer
- Clubs disbanding, or requiring loyalty oaths to a side in the war, driving out anyone who wouldn't do so
- The silencing of the other side by "losing" letters or editing them before publication (this was when the role of the internet was played by newsletters)
- The silencing of the other side by refusing to allow "the wrong" art to be hung or "the wrong" stories to be published.
- Harrassment of folks on the wrong side... not just via letters to the letterzines, but to their homes and sometimes their families
- Outing fanficcers to the Powers That Be and/or their employers

You ask me why I'm weary, why I can't speak to you
I saw people being led through art shows blindfolded, lest they see the "wrong" art, and then complaining furiously to the art chair about the "filth" hung. I heard people snarling at auctioneers "nobody wants to bid on THAT!" when the wrong items came up.

I had a former friend look me dead in the eye and announce, "The reason you like [that side] is because you don't know the difference between good and evil."

I was harassed for four years about a letter I sent to Starlog. One in which, ironically, I was pointing out that the current Gulf War was far more important than a TV show regardless of outcome. (If I had a dime for every time I was told that letter "hurt someone's feelings" I'd be Bill Gates. [Don't use the word 'heartfelt' around me. After all that conditioning, it's an instant purgative.] If I had a buck for every "Starlog is a magazine about fans; how dare it print a letter dissing TV!" I could go to Cardiff right this minute.) If I had a penny for every hissed reiteration of "if the shoe fits, kick yourself with it" - a line I had swiped from the other side, actually - I'd be Paul McCartney.

Four years ago - a good 15 years after the original war - someone came to a panel I ran at Media*West with the firm intention of having me thrown off of the panel for said war.

I'm young enough to look at, and far too old to see / All the scars are on the inside
This is what I remember when I see a fandom start to angst over cast changes. These are the lenses I'm looking through when I read lines like "When she goes, I go!" and "This will ruin the fandom!" and "Fans ought to..." and "Fans shouldn't..." and certainly "Producer/writer/actor/TPTB has ruined OUR show!"

But the war's still going on, dear
I'm ashamed to say that the old warhorse got a sniff of the gunpowder and lept into the wank yesterday, challenging someone who announced they would leave as soon as their favorite character left. Fortunately for us both, she disarmed me instantly with a response of grace and dignity, allowing me my preferences while holding quietly to hers.

I lept into it again in a disagreement with a friend; having stated my side and putting the friendship over "winning," that one gets chalked up to agreeing to disagree.

I can't say if we're ever gonna be free
Actually, I can. My responses are forged into me, like Witchblade; my experiences are intertwined in my life and cannot be disconnected.

And this, too, is why I squee, and celebrate cheese, and smile at silly communities, and revel in airy, fantastical castles in the air like Steve the Oood or preposterous unified theories of future events. They delight me because they are not war. Ingenuity, cleverness, intelligence, and even sarcasm for the greater fun? Count me in! (ETA: That's saying the same thing three times, isn't it? Ingenuity, passion, amusement and sarcasm, then. Can't forget a good snark.)

I'm not asking for pity or argument or (from the chunk of my f-list who aren't fannish) even understanding. Since there are only 1 or 2 people on the f-list who were there at the time, I just needed to explain.
neadods: (Default)
Prepare for Fair
[livejournal.com profile] tchwrtr gets rights of first brag so I won't mention amounts, but PfF was very successful - and had the fastest breakdown/cleanup EVER! There were bargains galore - raw silk for $3 a yard, bodices for $30, skirts for $5, and more. I might have blown my "mend for fair" resolution, but I bought plenty of garb to make up for it. Also some fantastic baskets, including one that's probably going to become my new favorite, and a couple of thoroughly wicked brownies. M got some linen for a mind-boggling price (mostly because she saw it before I did!)

Now home nursing sore feet and sucking down water because it's killer heat out there, but quite pleased - with my haul, with how well it ran, and with the take.

Someone read The Velveteen Rabbit a few too many times
The Real Person Fic thing continues to rage on Fanthro, with this comment to me regarding Real People - What makes someone real? What makes them more real than a fictional character? Are there levels of reality? ... How is [fanfic] not demeaning to fictional characters? Don't they have humanity (those fictional characters which ARE humans, of course) which is being denied? How is this not wrong?

Which I would blow off as snark, except that other comments on the thread suggest that she is being completely, utterly serious - stuff along the lines of "how do we know that we're not just a dream?" and "But character X swore that she had free will in her book."

To quote The Librarian, "I hear thorazine comes in vanilla now."

And in other news...
...Hugh Jackman rocks my world and I just can't watch him say "You're a dick" often enough. I'm missing the O'Danny Girls live album taping, alas - too far away and I'm too tired - so instead we're on the couch tonight - X Men, Les Miz in concert (complete with 21 ValJean salute) and the Bollywood version of "Sense and Sensibility." Wheee!
neadods: (Default)
The Harry Potter hysteria continues - the prize gobsmacker so far is the unpublished author informing JKR how to write. From the condescending "I wish you the best of luck for the continued success of the series" at the beginning to the rather hypocritical call for people to boycott the books at the end, it is a marvel of pretentiousness. My favorite line is As far as the role of women in literature, you have done inestimable damage.

And what inestimable damage is this? Not going for the poster's favorite 'ship.

The mind, she boggles.

I'm going to officially post something that got bandied back in private email. IMO, "My 'ship uber alles" is just as bad a pox on fandom as MarySuedom, and possibly worse. Why? Because Mary Sues just infect fandom itself, while the people who focus on their ship to the exclusion of all else are taking their grievances right to the creators. This accomplishes two things: dividing the fandom (which inevitably leads to wars) and, if they pay attention at all, pissing off the creators.

What's the point? What does it win, ever?

Ngah. Trying to come up with a really rational rant on this, to put on fanthropology.
neadods: (reading)
I have boggled one of my co-worker's minds by telling him the simple truth - I went to a midnight madness party (heavy on the midnight but mercifully low on the madness) and read the entire book the next day. Hey, I'm a fast reader, and it's not a difficult read, y'know?

Also - props for Barnes and Noble. I've been hearing horror stories about Borders, to the point that I'm wondering if their management had a "101 ways to hose our customers" meeting before Friday night. On the other hand, Barnes and Noble were marvels of efficiency. Go in, check in, get a wristband per book (different colors for preorders and walkins, but they had so many that they sold to all comers.) Get option of a giveaway pack or elements thereof. I arrived at 9:45 and the line - one single one - had started. For those who couldn't sit still, there were readings and a wand-making table and stuff like that. By an hour to showtime the line quietly snaked through the building; nobody was outside in the steaming heat. They did PA announcements every 10 minutes until they coaxed us all to shout "10 - 9 - 8 - 7..." and exactly at midnight they started the line. There were 5 sellers and 1 guy directing traffic; I was around 20th in line and walked out the door about 10 minutes later.

No insanity, no hysteria, no wailing kids, and to the best of my knowledge, no one turned away. And we only paid $17.99 regardless of when (or if) you ordered it.

ExpandMy one comment on the book )

And now a whole bunch o' links for the interested. ExpandLinks for fans gone wild! Or more accurately, a fringe fandom going 'round the bend. )

On a much more serious note, [livejournal.com profile] garlandgraves has some really thoughtful things to say about this book regarding what we think vs what might be true, and digs up some hints in the past books regarding #7.

And [livejournal.com profile] tchwrtr has has a writer's view of the whole thing: "There's a typo on page 10."

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